Las Vegas Sidewinders: Drake (Book 2) (23 page)

He heard Karl’s bedroom
door open and saw Kate softly creeping out. She was wearing one of Karl’s
T-shirts and a pair of shorts, looking properly tousled and tired after a night
of what had undoubtedly not included much sleep. She padded into the room and
took the chair next to his and sighed.

“Tired?” he gave her a
faint smile.

“Exhausted,” she
admitted. “I can’t stop thinking about Erin.”

“Me either.”

“She’s going to panic
if she tries to call you and your number is disconnected.”

“I know, but there’s no
help for that now. It’s better to get a new number after everything that’s
happened. I’m assuming she’ll call you to figure out what’s going on.”

Kate nodded. “What time
are we meeting with the security guys?”

“1:00. Can you be ready
to go by the time we leave for practice? I think it’s safer for you to come
with us. I don’t want you to be alone until we’ve come up with a plan.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll
go shower now.” She got up and touched his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.
We’re going to figure this out. I refuse to believe he’s going to get away with
killing Shay and betraying his country.”

“I hope you’re right.”
He briefly covered her hand with his.

Sitting at her desk,
Erin didn’t realize Mark had come in until he spoke.

“Hey.”

She jumped a little and
looked up at him. “Hey.” She couldn’t help feeling nervous around him now,
though she tried her best not to act any differently.

“How’s it going? You
look tired. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Not
sleeping really well, but it takes a while to adjust. You know how it is.”

“Yeah.” He seemed
uncomfortable and she squinted up at him.

“Something bothering
you, Mark?”

“I found this on the
floor in the showers.” He handed her a piece of paper.

Erin took it and
discovered it was actually a bank receipt. She looked at it and sucked in a
deep breath. “No.” She whispered the word, but she felt her heart slamming in
her chest. “This can’t mean…”

“Erin, we have to think
about it like that’s exactly what it means.”

“Fuck!” She shot up out
of her chair and threw the paper down. “Sonofabitch.
Really
?!” She
wanted to think that this was a trick, that he was trying to shift blame, but
it made perfect sense. The person who knew her best, the person who could hurt
her most, was the person that Clay would go to as an ally. Other than Kate and
Tessa, it could only be Liv.

“Who else knows about
this?”

“No one.” He shifted.
“What do you want to do?”

“This is personal,” she
whispered. “We’re all in danger.”

He frowned. “I don’t
understand.”

She ran her hands over
her face. “Mark, what did Shay tell you about me?”

He actually laughed.
“Um, really? What
didn’t
he tell me about you?”

She felt herself flush.
“How much do you know? Everything?”

He took a breath.
“Well, I can’t imagine there’s more than what I know.”

“What did he tell you
about Clay and me?”

“Uh, I don’t know.” He
looked uncomfortable again.

“Look, don’t you
understand? She’s not doing this on her own. Where do you think that money came
from?!”

Mark stared at her for
a moment and then his face became a blank mask. “You mean this is about
you
?”

“This has to be Clay’s
doing.”

“We got intelligence
from the NSA and the CIA and the friggin’ Pentagon! Are you telling me Clay has
all those agencies in his pocket?! Erin, come on!”

“No! The nuclear threat
is real, but I think this particular facility has been abandoned. I don’t think
Al Qaeda or anyone else is doing anything with that place. I believe Clay is
paying mercenaries—
or
someone
—to be here when opportunities arise
for us to investigate. Just like he did two and a half years ago.”

“To what end?” He looked
dubious. “To kill you?”

“Or Shay. Or both of
us.”

“Do you know how crazy
we’re going to sound if we tell anyone this?!” He threw his hands up. “No one
is going to believe this.”

“I know.” She
swallowed. “I thought it was you.”

“You thought
what
was me?” He frowned.

“The traitor.”

His mouth fell open.
Then he snapped it shut. “And you told Liv.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s trying to kill
you and she knows all your secrets.”

“Fuck.” Erin closed her
eyes. “She knows every possible way to hurt me.”

Mark walked towards her
slowly and reached out to take her by the shoulders. “I told my best friend
that I would take care of the woman he loved, no matter what happened, and I’ve
done a shitty job of it. That changes now. I’m not going to let anything happen
to you.”

Erin looked up at him.
“I don’t know what you can do. A bank receipt for $200,000 doesn’t prove
anything. Not enough to counter all the intelligence we’re working with.”

“There has to be a way
to track where the money came from.”

“This goes back to
2010,” Erin said quietly. “Shay knew something was wrong that day—that’s why he
went with us instead of Louie. He knew something wasn’t right and wanted to see
what was going on himself. Do you know what he was thinking that day?”

“Not exactly, no.” He
frowned. “He’d been in with the General and an Air Force guy—I don’t know what
that was about. He came out looking a little pale. When I asked him what was
wrong, he told me we had to check something out. His career was on the line and
he needed to figure it out.”

“Did you put that in
your report?”

“No.” He looked
stricken. “Jesus Christ, I was trying to protect him. He didn’t tell me
anything—he knew I would have his back no matter what and then you had that
letter you needed to talk about so I didn’t press him. I didn’t think it could
possibly have any relationship to that IED.”

“Do you think he found
out something about what Clay was doing?”

“Maybe.”

“I don’t know what to
do next. Do we trust Nicoletti?” She met his eyes worriedly.

“I don’t really know
him. As far as I know, he was in Japan when we were here last time. Not sure
how he could’ve been involved, but I guess with enough money, you can buy
almost anyone.”

“How do we cancel this
mission?” She looked at him desperately. “We have to get out of here! Any new
info that comes through is going to get us killed, no matter how careful we
are. If Liv is feeding our schedule to Clay and he’s paying mercs who are
already in the region…” Her voice trailed off as a bout of nausea hit her. It
was so strong and swift she didn’t have time to do anything but grab the small
waste basket under the desk.

“Jesus, Erin!” Mark
grabbed a few tissues off the edge of her desk and handed them to her. “What’s
wrong with you? You’ve never had a weak stomach before!”

“I have no idea,” she
said quietly. “Maybe this is a new side effect of the PTSD.”

“If you still had
noticeable PTSD you wouldn’t have been cleared for a mission like this.” He
looked at her carefully, squinting. “Jesus fucking Christ. You’re
pregnant
.”

The door flew open and
Colonel Nicoletti looked in. “There’s news. My office, 5 minutes.” He backed
out as quickly as he’d come.

“
Fuck
.” Erin
reached into her desk for a piece of gum.

“You listen to me!”
Mark grabbed her by the arms and whispered harshly, his mouth close to her ear.
“I don’t care that you outrank me. I don’t care that you’re married. I don’t
care what anyone thinks—my only goal is getting you out of here alive. No
matter what I do, you need to play along. You need to let me protect you until
we’re back in the States.”

“Mark?” She wasn’t sure
what to make of his sudden overprotectiveness.

“I’m not letting Clay,
or Liv, or anyone else, get to you. Not on my watch. Until I get you safely
home to your new husband, you and I are going to be inseparable. You got that?”

She blinked. “Mark…”

“I don’t give a fuck
about my career, or yours, for that matter. The only way I can protect you is
by having your back, and that means 24/7.”

“I can take care of
myself.” She scowled at him. “She doesn’t know we know anything.”

“No, but she might go
looking for that receipt and figure out that someone found it.” He reached out
and took the receipt from where she’d dropped it and put it in his pocket.
“Erin, I’m dead serious. We’ve got to stick together.”

“We can’t tell the
others?”

“Not yet.” He turned
and motioned for her to go in front of him. “Let’s go.”

She gave him a look but
stepped in front of him and led the way to the Colonel’s office. On their way
out, Liv and Eric were coming around the corner.

“Man, the food here
sucks,” Eric complained. “And Liv won’t let me have seconds!”

“You’ve got 15 more
pounds to lose,” Mark told him. “How are you going to run away from bad guys if
you’re too fat to run?”

“I can run!” Eric
protested. “Just maybe not as fast as you.”

“That’s for sure,” Mark
snorted.

Eric laughed, his usual
good-natured self.

“You got up early this
morning,” Liv said, falling into step with Erin.

“I’m focused on the
endgame,” Erin said lightly. “So I can get home to Drake.”

“I’d be in a hurry too,
if I had a fine piece like that waiting for me at home.” Liv looked sad for a
moment.

“You gotta stop going
out with guys who only look at your tits,” Eric said reasonably. “If I looked
at Maria’s chest like that, she would’ve bitch-slapped me across L.A.”

Erin snorted.

“Guys like boobs,” Mark
said with a shrug. “What else are we going to look at? I mean, it’s boobs or
booty.”

Erin shook her head.
“You need to take gentleman lessons from Eric. He’s got the right idea.”

“It’s ‘cause he’s
afraid of his Mama!” Mark ducked as Eric swatted at his head.

“Fuck you,” Eric
chortled.

They made their way
into Colonel Nicoletti’s office, meeting Louie and Ronnie there, along with a
few other members of the staff. A map was sprawled across a large table and the
Colonel motioned for them to gather around. “Here.” He pointed to the same
place they’d seen movement in 2010. “The abandoned plant. There’s movement
again. However, our intelligence says that it’s intentional. Seems like they
want to draw us out there.”

Erin frowned. “And
we’re going to go?”

“Of
course.” He smiled. “But this time they won’t see us coming.”

Sitting at the offices
of the security specialists, Drake, Kate and Karl waited impatiently for the
owner of the company to join them. Apparently, there was a lot more going on
than they’d originally thought. The owner of the company, Jason Carroll, had
gotten involved personally. As an ex-Marine, he’d taken this case himself. A
dirty Marine was incomprehensible to him, and he was on board to help them find
out whom it was, especially when the lives of Marines were still on the line.

“I’m sorry to keep you
waiting,” Jason came in, looking serious. His broad shoulders filled out the
button-down shirt he wore. Even with the sleeves rolled up and a casual pair of
khaki pants, he looked dangerous. “I’ve had two of my best people working
around the clock on this, and I think you’re going to be somewhat disturbed by
what we’ve found.”

Drake shook his hand.
“I appreciate you taking the time to help us with this. I don’t know how to protect
my wife from this lunatic she used to be married to.”

“Well, he’s not really
the problem.” Jason pulled out some documents.

“Clay’s
not
the
problem?” Kate couldn’t stop herself from speaking out loud. She clapped her
hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m Kate Lansing—Erin’s best friend.”

 “Yes, I know who
you are.” He smiled. “Please understand that in order for us to do a thorough
job, we had to check out everyone involved in Erin’s life.”

Kate arched an eyebrow.
“I have nothing to hide.”

He just glanced at her
with a small smile and Kate fought the urge to stick her tongue out at him; she
figured he’d discovered her trust fund.

“So Clay isn’t
involved?” Kate had no idea what he was talking about, unless he was referring
to how much money her parents had, and she was too focused on Clay to care
about any of that now.

“Well, I didn’t say
that exactly,” Jason thumbed through the papers in his hand. “So, here’s what
I’ve got so far. While Clay is one of your problems, he’s not your
biggest
problem. Clay is bipolar and not always good about taking his medication, but
he simply doesn’t have the power to be involved with what’s going on in
Afghanistan. That’s coming from somewhere much higher up.”

“Higher up? Like within
the military?” Drake was confused.

“No. Like within the
government.” He took out a picture of Clay and his new girlfriend. “This woman
is Sonya Heath. Her mother, Raya, is Syrian. Her father is Massachusetts State
Senator Gavin Heath.”

“Oh hell.” Drake knew
this couldn’t be good.

“Raya Heath and Jan
Gentry have been best friends since college.” Jason paused, his blue eyes sharp
and assessing. “They tried to set up Sonya with Shay during high school, but
neither he nor Clay were interested. However, that changed about a year ago
when she and Clay ran into each other at a charity event. They’ve been dating
ever since. And that’s about the time Clay’s behavior started to escalate.”

“So this Sonya woman is
involved somehow?”

“We’re not sure yet,
but it’s a possibility that she’s being manipulated by two mothers who want
their children to marry.”

“Why does this involve
Erin?” Drake protested. “Wouldn’t this be a good thing, Clay finding someone
else to pay attention to?”

“You’ll need to be
patient with me,” Jason spoke quietly. “This seems to go several layers deep.”

“Sorry.”

“First thing we looked
into was whether or not the emails Shay and Jan exchanged three years ago were
being accessed from somewhere else. It turns out they were not. They were all
on Jan’s computer or her cell phone. So unless someone was at her house, on a
regular basis, and signing in from her computer, we don’t see any evidence that
anyone accessed them other than her.”

“That makes no sense,”
Kate murmured aloud. “That would mean that Jan was telling Clay things…wouldn’t
it?”

“Actually, yes. In
fact, the nude picture of Erin originated from Jan’s computer.”

Drake froze.
Jan?!
Of all the people he might have suspected were involved, he didn’t see this
coming. Erin definitely wouldn’t be expecting this. And he’d already sent her
the original packet of information.
Shit!

“After doing some
digging, and we can’t verify every single call, it appears that most of the
calls made to Afghanistan were made from Clay’s house, but during times when we
know he was at work. Again, we can’t verify all of them, but a large majority
of them were made between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., which are his regular work
hours, and we do have at least one phone call that was made when he was on
vacation, out of the country. There is no way he made that phone call. I have a
list of the dates we could verify he was definitely not home.” He handed Drake
a piece of paper.

“So someone was calling
Afghanistan from Clay’s house, trying to implicate him?!” Drake was still
having a hard time focusing on this new development.

“One of my men had a
little chat with Clay’s gardener. It seems that Jan spends a lot of time at
Clay’s house. She has a key and comes and goes regularly.” Jason pulled out a
handful of pictures of Jan going in and out of the house.

“She’s trying to frame
her own son?” Kate looked shocked.

“They’ve got to be
working together,” Drake said, shaking his head. “He attacked Erin at the
restaurant and in the parking lot on base by himself.”

“It appears he’s being
nudged in that direction by both his mother and his girlfriend.” Jason handed
him another sheet. “These are emails from the last few months.”

Drake felt a little
nauseous as he read emails from Jan to Clay, reminding him how badly Erin had
treated him and that she was laughing at him now that she’d found a new man. No
wonder Clay was so hateful; he’d been listening to someone poisoning his
already disturbed mind. This would also explain why it had escalated recently.

“I don’t understand the
purpose,” Karl finally spoke. “I’m mostly just here to support my friends, so
looking in from the outside, this makes no sense to me. Why are they suddenly
trying to get revenge for what happened almost three years ago—what changed?”

“Erin got better,” Kate
said quietly. “She was finally getting past it, and someone doesn’t want her to
be happy.”

“I’m afraid it’s worse
than that.” Jason didn’t look happy. “What Erin told you, about how it was
beginning to look like the accident almost three years ago wasn’t an accident,
but a planned attack? That wasn’t a
terrorist
attack. It was personal.”
He looked around the room. “It was a calculated attack, meant to take out
Erin.”

“What?!” Kate’s hands
flew to her mouth. “Jan was gunning for Erin?”

“Apparently, she needed
to remove the person who had driven a wedge between the twins. When you
originally hired us, we ran down everything we could about Clay so we weren’t
sure what we were dealing with. Now that we’ve gone in and looked more
carefully at Jan’s records, it’s clear she was the driving force behind this,
but she was very careful how she handled it. By calling her contacts in
Afghanistan from Clay’s house, she’s put Clay in the hot seat.” He sat back and
shook his head. “I personally called a friend who does freelance work in the
region. He owes me a favor, so I got some information about the attack on
August 17
^th
, 2010. The IED was placed that day, not long before Shay
and Erin’s unit drove over it. There were no locals involved—the reason they
were closing down that base is because it no longer had any purpose. A group of
well-paid and well-trained mercenaries set up that whole scenario. Erin should
have been in the first car with Louie and either Mark or Eric, followed by the
second, which would have held Mark or Eric, Olivia and Ronnie. Best-case
scenario would have both vehicles blown up and the mercs would go in and finish
them off—the rest of the unit was collateral damage. Shay shouldn’t have even
been there—as the commander he would have stayed on base. Unfortunately, Shay
and Erin were in that first vehicle and Erin didn’t die. No one in the second
vehicle was injured because, for some reason they can’t explain, Erin either
sped up or the second vehicle slowed down.”

“Or both,” Drake spoke
quietly. “Erin suspects someone in her unit is dirty.”

“And we’re pretty sure
we know who it is,” Jason got out a stack of bank records.

Erin tapped her foot
impatiently, waiting for the rest of the unit to gather their gear. She looked
at her watch and took a deep breath. She had to keep her emotions under control
and make sure Liv didn’t suspect they knew what she’d done. True to his word,
Mark was keeping close, always in sight. Colonel Nicoletti was shouting orders
inside his office but she stayed outside, trying to find a moment to catch him
alone. She didn’t know if she could trust him, but the alternative was letting
him plan a mission that could get them all killed. Mark was in charge of
keeping Liv busy while she snuck in to talk to him.

At Mark’s signal, she
slipped inside and shut the door. She paused, waiting for him to end his phone
call.

“Captain, can I help
you?” He looked annoyed and she hesitated. Damn, she had no way of knowing if
she could trust him but she was out of options. She’d sent an email to both
Kate and Drake telling them everything she knew. If anything happened to her,
there would be at least three people, including Mark, who knew the truth.

“Sir, I have some
information that could change the details of this mission.”

“And you waited until
five minutes before we left to tell me?!” He looked seriously annoyed now.
“Gentry, I’ve been patient with you because you were a hell of a soldier before
your last trip overseas, but you are seriously starting to grate on my nerves.”

“I’m sorry, sir.” She
looked him directly in the eye. “We have a traitor in our unit but I can’t
prove it.”

For a moment she didn’t
dare take a breath as he glared at her. “Are you kidding me, Marine?”

“No, sir.” She reached
into her pocket and pulled out a copy of the bank deposit slip. Mark had buried
the original in a place where only the two of them would know to find it. The
information was also in the email she’d sent to Drake, but who knew when he
would get it or what anyone could do with that information.

“What the fuck is
this?” he demanded.

“It’s a deposit slip
showing that $200,000 was deposited into Olivia Mitchell’s bank account four
days ago.” She knew she was risking everything, from her career to her life,
but she had no choice. He was her commanding officer and he was getting ready
to lead them into a trap. If he was dirty too, she and Mark had a contingency
plan for staying alive, but it would mean going AWOL and braving the
Afghanistan desert on their own.

“And what does that
mean, exactly?”

“I’m almost positive my
ex-husband is paying her to give him details of our mission. I think he did it
in 2010 as well, which is how they knew where we were going to be and when.”

“But you can’t prove
any of this?”

“No, sir.” She stood up
to her full 5’10”. “If I’m wrong, you can do whatever you want with me—I’m
willing to face a court-martial rather than die at the hands of a dirty Marine.
I believe she attempted to kill me, and instead killed Shay, in 2010.”

“For what?” he
demanded.

“Money,” she said simply.

“This is because you
and Shay were
sleeping together
?!”

“We were
not
!”
she huffed indignantly. “We loved each other, but we made a date to discuss
those feelings when we returned to the States. We were both aware how dangerous
a relationship like that could be in theater. We never once behaved
inappropriately.
Ever
.”

They glared at each
other for a few seconds before the Colonel shook his head.

“So you’re telling me
you want me to change some detail of this mission and keep Mitchell in the
dark?” he finally spoke.

“Yes, sir.” She looked
into his face and wasn’t sure what she saw. “I don’t even think we should go on
this mission. I believe the movement we’ve been seeing in the hills is
mercenaries hired by my ex-husband to draw us back there. I think they’re going
to be waiting for us, just like last time, no matter what, because Liv is
somehow getting our information to whoever is out there.”

“I’ll be damned.” He
shook his head. “You’re serious?”

“Of course I’m
serious!” She frowned at him. “I’m risking my entire career! No offense, but I
don’t even know you. My whole world has been turned upside down with this, and
I have no idea who to trust.”

“Why didn’t you tell me
this earlier?!”

“I didn’t know before.
My husband hired a private investigator and I think he found proof, but I
haven’t gotten the documents yet. They should be arriving in a day or two.”

Colonel Nicoletti
pursed his lips. He pointed his finger at her. “Do you understand how serious
this is?”